March 08, 2007

A decade or so ago, two struggling actors were waiting tables at Chicago’s now-defunct Café du Midi.

There’s nothing notable about that, except that those two actors are now set to star in one the highest-profile projects in television.

Chicago native Paul Adelstein, who can currently be seen as Agent Paul Kellerman in “Prison Break,” has been cast as one of the male leads in the upcoming “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff, which centers around Seattle Grace Hospital’s Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh).

Tim Daly (“Wings,” “The Nine”) and Taye Diggs (“Day Break,” “Kevin Hill”) have also been cast in the unnamed spinoff series (which some fans have semi-jokingly dubbed “Montgomery’s Ward”).

The pilot for that show, which has Montgomery thinking about leaving Seattle Grace, will function as the two-hour season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” in May. And as it happens, the woman who plays the flame-haired neonatal surgeon Montgomery is an old friend of Adelstein’s, with whom he waited tables at Bucktown's Café du Midi all those years ago.

“I had a nice conversation with [Walsh] last week, we had a good laugh,” Adelstein said in a recent phone interview. “It’s bizarre enough to be a working actor, but it’s such a dream to be around someone who was there essentially at the beginning, and someone who I like so much.

“I said to her, ‘Do you remember that time I was driving you to a voiceover audition, it was 2 degrees and there was no heat in my car and we were late for a shift at the restaurant and you couldn’t pay the rent?’” Adelstein said.

Both actors did workshops with John Cusack’s New Crimes stage troupe and at Evanston’s famed Piven Theatre Workshop; Adelstein and Walsh even appeared in the same episode of the Chicago-set series “Cupid,” which starred Jeremy Piven, but Adelstein said they didn’t have a scene together. The actors kept in touch when they both moved out to L.A., and used to live so close to each other that Adelstein would sometimes ask Walsh to go over lines with him when he had a big scene or audition.

“It’s going to be so great to be able to look across the room at her and think, ‘I’ve known her for 15 years,’” added Adelstein, who said that shooting begins on the “Grey’s” spinoff in a few days.

Over those 15 years, Adelstein has gone from being a respected Chicago stage actor with credits at Steppenwolf and elsewhere to a busy film and TV actor, racking up roles in everything from “Scrubs” and “Without a Trace” to “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Be Cool.”

But it’s as “Prison Break’s” wily Kellerman that he’s gained the most notice of late, and Adelstein’s new gig raises the obvious question – what happens to Kellerman, especially if the “Grey’s” spinoff becomes a full-fledged series in the fall?

Adelstein was diplomatic and would only say that things would end “on a cliffhanger” for Kellerman at the end of “Prison Break’s” current season.

In any case, Adelstein says he "can’t believe his good fortune” in nabbing a role on the new ABC show, which is being written by “Grey’s” creator and University Park native Shonda Rhimes.

Adelstein wouldn’t say a word about what his role is or what happens in the two-hour pilot – Rhimes is well known for strictly enforcing a cone of silence around her projects – but he would say that the pilot for the new series is “character driven.”

“I think with even some of the strongest writers out there, you could swap out the dialogue between characters on the show,” but that isn't the case with Rhimes, said Adelstein, who noted that he and his wife, Liza Weil, who plays Paris on “Gilmore Girls,” are big fans of “Grey’s.” “Shonda not only writes great dialogue, she writes great characters. It’s all very specific. She’s got a very strong voice, it’s funny and truthful and three-dimensional, which is great fun for an actor and rare.”

“She’s able to write realistic yet outrageous situations that can be funny too,” he said. “It’s all there, that’s what makes it human and that’s what makes you empathize with the characters.”

Excuse me, George, but this is not your blog--it's Mo's. If she wants to write about "Grey's Anatomy," it's her business and none of yours. I'm not a fan of the show, but if I don't want to read about it, I'll go somewhere else. Having seen Kate Walsh in Red Orchid Theatre's "Born Guilty" all those years ago, I'm glad to see that she's become arguably a TV star.

If you don't like what Mo writes about, DON'T READ IT. No one is holding a gun to your head to click on the post.

And could it possibly be that your hatred of "Grey's" is because it's the creation of a strong African-American woman?

I really like Paul Adelstein, but I can't stand "Grey's Anatomy". Worst Show on TV, IMO, because it has the potential to be so great (the train accident episode with Stacey Keena comes to mind), and yet it chooses to focus on the insipid McDreamy/McSteamy storylines.

Then again, the new spin off won't feature Ellen Pompeo's cloying voice overs, so perhaps it's worth checking out after all!

I have zero interest in "Grey's", it's your basic soap opera and not one of the best 10 or 15 Dramas on TV. It's my opinion of course, but I really don't see how "Grey's" is that much different from say "Melrose in a hospital".

All that aside, I love Paul Adelstein...he makes a great villain as Kellerman on "Prison Break" and I wish him great success.

With regards to "Break", I watch the show but Season 2 has not been nearly as good as season 1 and frankly, they should end the show this year. It will get dragged out because that's what corporate schills high up at the Networks do, but it should end mercifully in May.

To Mark,
Where did that come from? "Grey's Anatomy" is bad TV no matter who created it or writes its vapid scripts. For me, race or creed or anything else doesn't figure into good or bad TV: it's all about the ideas, the writing, the acting - in short, the product. What I see and what I hear. Apparently, though, it does for you. And that's just strange.
The thing about Mo that is so different from you, lad, and so admirable about her is that she can take views expressed that don't agree with hers and print them. She chooses to print or not print, as she wishes, after all. Good on you, Mo. You, dear Mark, on the other hand, apparently want to shout diversity of opinion down and kick it to the curb. Also strange. Are you really sure you're in the right country?

No!!!! (Well, actually "Yay!" for Paul Adelstein) Kellerman is PB's original Magnificent B@st@rd, if we lose him, we'll have to make do with Bill Fichtner as the sole MB, as there is *nothing* magnificent about Kim.

I've never understood the love for Grey's, but wish Paul the best of luck with the new role and may check it out just to see him.

If you'd bothered reading carefully, George, you would've noticed that I said that I *don't* watch "Grey's."

And what I said that if you're not interested in the subject of the post, don't read it still stands. I don't watch "24," so I don't read Mo's Tuesday morning recap. And I only read the SF fanboi post responses only to laugh at their geekiness. Do what I do with those shows with "Grey's" and you'll have a much less miserable life. It's only a TV show, dude.

Grey's started out strong. Its medical storylines were never completely believable, but recently the storylines have gotten beyond ridiculous.
The promos are even worse. Each week the marketers feel they have to top the previous week's "drama."
This tactic inevitably leads to laughable plots and promos ("Next week on 'Grey's" ... the most INCREDIBLE STORY YET!!!").
It also leaves to the audience feeling duped and taken advantage of. Just deliver a strong story ("NYPD Blue") and the show will succeed. But it has gotten silly.
The show also isn't true to its characters. In a recent episode Izzy and Yang were observing Meredith's father and laughing at his nervous, "spastic" behavior, and the two couldn't get over how much Meredith was like him. Thing is, Meredith has never been portrayed in this dorky fashion. It was embarrassing watching the writers try to ram this connection down our throats. It was done for cheap laugh. Disappointing.

I agree with George. Truthfully, I stopped reading the Trib's TV column because it seemed to be mostly about Grey's Crapatomy. How about talking about the Nip/Tuck casting coup of Nicole Kidman and Madonna that Ryan Murphy talked about at Paleyfest this week?

I don't know who this so-called "Mark Jeffries" is, but her/his postings, Mo, are all over the place. "Grey's Anatomy" was not even in the top 10 for the week ending March 5th, 2007. "Idol" took top three, followed by "House." Maybe by "the last I looked" she/he means "months ago"? All she/he seems to want to do is extinguish other opinions, but without expressing any of her/his own. And they are badly written.

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